Love never lasts
by ajayeclipsed
Summary: Hikari's been in a relationship with Ash ever since her 16th birthday. With both their of parents intending on them to get married in fall, Hikari's parents ship her away in the hopes that she'll become responsible, ready for married life. The only problem in their plan was they never intended for her to fall in love with someone else. (Bad summary, ill sort it out later. :s)
1. Goodbyes

**A/N: So I reaally kinda just miss writing but with commitments of college and stuff I never really have the time :/ As summers coming, I think I'll be able to spend more time writing although please forgive me if I'm a little slow at uploading at first .-. I'm hoping to get into this properly again though, as next year I'm also taking a creative writing course, so this should help, I think? Idk, but anyway, I haven't really written anything in a while so this first chapter might be rusty, but bear with me, okay? Oh, constructed criticism's always good btw guys :P if this looks familiar it's because I originally uploaded this as a Chelsea/island of happiness story, but I felt like doing something different, and I love love this game, so we have an Animal parade one now instead :)**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Natsume own's all Harvest Moon stuff mentioned in this story etc etc**

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The couple were seated by the running stream, the smell of freshly cut spring grass intoxicated the air, filling the spaces between them. For a while it stayed silent, with the only the sounds of the babbling brook and the occasional chirp of a bird sitting in a nearby oak filling the mountain with noise. Hikari glanced briefly at the boy sitting next to her and sighed, confused as to why he wasn't saying anything. Did she do something to upset him? Was something bothering him? Oor or what? Her head swarmed with endless possibilities as to why he was being so quiet. It was completely out of character for the young farmer. With a puzzled look on her face, Hikari jumped up from where she was sitting and stood in front of her supposed boyfriend. She giggled a little as he tilted his head up towards her, showing a quizzical expression. With a sigh, Hikari began speaking.

"Ash, is there something wrong? You're not acting like yourself today and I, uhm." She rubbed her hand against her arm – a habit of hers whenever she was nervous about something.

"Yeah, it's fine, I was just thinking, you know, about the next season and, Hik, I don't know how I'm going to cope." He stuttered, refusing to meet her big brown eyes. "Not seeing you throughout the whole of summer's going to suck big time." He glanced back up at the brunette, giving her a sad smile.

"Hey, I'm the one who should be worried about all this, after all, I am the one who's being shipped off to a place I don't know so I can apparently learn independence etc etc etc… ready for married life." The girl stated, placing her hands on her hip and rolling her eyes as she spoke.

Ash stopped to think for a minute before speaking. "Yeah I guess, and you'll be back before we know it. Besides, this might be good for us." Ash said, twirling a strand of hair between his fingertips.

Hikari couldn't help but nod.

_Maybe it would be good for us?_

He sighed and added: "Besides, a season won't be that long, surely it'll go by quickly right? You'll be back in my arms before you know it, ready for the ceremony." Ash gave a big grin at the word ceremony, excited by the thought that one day, they would be together forever.

The girl nodded again, nervously twisting the silvery engagement ring resting on the fourth finger of her left hand. She was already looking forward to the wedding though, that thought alone was the only reason she allowed her parents to ship her off. Hikari really did want to try and become a better person, maybe then her new life with Ash would start smoothly. The wedding was a pre-arranged thing by their parents, who hoped that by tying the two farmers (one from each town – Bluebell and Konohana) together, it would also help bring the two towns together too.

Ash thought differently though. He was dreading this next season, because being apart from Hikari was honestly very hard for him. He'd fallen in love with her from the first day her parents introduced him to her on her 16th birthday. Since then, the two farmers had been inseparable, spending every last minute of the past two years by each other's side. He felt lucky to have someone like Hikari to be able to eventually call his wife. In fact, he really couldn't wait for the day of the wedding, although that seemed like years away to him right now.

With a stretch, Ash reached over and grabbed Hikari's hands, pulling her closer to him. Without even thinking, the brunette spun around and gently plopped into Ash's lap, resting her head lightly on his chest. She took a deep breath in, burying herself in the fresh hay smell that lingered on his shirt. She sighed, this was definitely one thing she would miss whilst being away.

"Hik? Do you maybe wanna play a game, you know, like hide and seek again?" Ash chuckled, remembering how the first time the played the couple ended up sharing their first kiss.

"I guess so. Gotta make this last day fun right?" She grinned, hopping up from his lap.

"Okay, you hide, I seek, one, two three, go…" Ash covered his eyes with his hands and began counting slowly…

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

_Ahh, I need some place good to hide, but where…_

Hikari ran as fast as she could up the mountain until she reached the goddess pond. Her favourite place to hide. Breathlessly, she went and laid herself down in a bush, a little way away from the water. She completely relaxed herself, closing her eyes, listening to the gentle swaying of the trees being blown by the soft spring air. A while later, the poor girl was frightened to death when a rather heavy weight came and plonked itself on top of her.

"I… found.. you." Ash chuckled rather breathlessly, planting a small kiss on the girl's lips.

Hikari giggled a little. "You took your time though."

"Yeah, I know. I knew you'd be here though. You always hide here." Ash laughed, filling Hikari's ears with a sound she loved listening to.

Hikari felt her cheeks redden, suddenly realising that he was still laying quite comfortably on top of her, something he hadn't done before. Without thinking much of it, she found herself wrapping her small arms around the boy's neck, meeting his lips yet again for a much deeper passionate kiss. When she pulled away she smiled slightly, seeing the look of pure happiness spread on his face. That's all Hikari ever wanted to do, make Ash happy, because when he was happy, she could be happy too.

"Ash, c'mon, walk with me down the mountain please." she said softly, attempting to push the farmer off of her.

The walked hand in hand silently all the way to Konahona, neither of them knowing exactly what to say to the other. Once they reached the farm place Hikari dashed inside, rounded together her stuff and shoved it in the back of cart before kissing her parents good bye. It was certainly going to be weird living in a house without them for a month, no one to baby her or tell her what to do and when to do it. Both her and Ash hopped onto the horse and cart, making their way towards the town where the boat would be leaving from.

After an hour and a half Journey, the couple made it to the beach where the boat would be leaving from. Hikari hopped down off the horse, giving it a gentle kiss on the nose and a pat on the head for being so good before going and collecting her stuff from the cart. Heaving all her luggage, well a suitcase half full of clothes, out, she slowly made her way towards the dock, feeling slightly teary eyed. Throwing the bag down, she turned to Ash and pulled him in for a last embrace, pulling all sorts of faces so she wouldn't start crying.

"Ahh, I'm going to miss you so much." She stuttered, feeling a few hot wet tears creep down her face.

"Hey, don't cry Hik, you'll see me soon."

She nodded slowly before placing a final kiss on his lips.

"Hey, Hik, I love you." He smiled, taking the hat from his head off and popping it onto the small brunette stood in front of him.

Her eyes widened in shock. "Ash, I can't take your hat, I know how much it means to you?"

"No, no it's fine, keep it. It's something that smells like me and stuff. Besides I know how much you like wearing it." He laughing, flicking through some memories that were swirling through his mind.

"Okay Ash. Thanks." Smiling, she caught the farmer's eyes once more before boarding the boat.

"Oh hey, I almost forgot. I love you too okay? See you in Fall." She smiled. With that, the boat began to take off, leaving Hikari and Ash waving frantic good byes to one another.

She couldn't stop herself from crying just the small amount as she lost sight of her farmer on the beach. It would be okay though, everything was going to be fine. Besides Summer would go quickly anyway? Especially when, as a present for their precious daughter, her parents had brought land for her as an early wedding but also learn to be responsible kind of present. She would be expected to make new friends, of which she was allowed to invite to the wedding if she wished, and look after cattle and the land that her parents had previously prepared. Actually thinking of new friends and almost a new life away from parents was enough to put a smile back onto Hikari's face. She was free at last.

Wiping away the damp on her face and ensuring her eyes were dry, she etched a smile onto her pretty little face as land began edging closer and closer. Well, this was it… This would be her new life for Summer at least…


	2. Welcoming's

The first glimpse of the town looked slightly promising for Hikari. As the boat began to draw closer and closer, more of pale pastel coloured houses came into view, setting up a pretty picture.

"Now Boarding Harmonica Town." A loud voice boomed.

Feeling slightly uneasy and very sea sick, Hikari took a couple of wobbly steps towards the plank propped up against the boat. Not wanting to walk across the rather unstable looking piece of wood that was separating her from the dock, she jumped instead, landing on both feet.

"Ahh." She exclaimed. "Made it." With a deep sigh, she turned to fully take in her surrounds a little more. A small lighthouse stood tall nearby, obviously needed to monitor the boats out at sea along with a small fishery. "Everything just looks so different from home." She sighed happily, this place would be like a breath of fresh air for her. A couple of small coughs interrupted her trail of thought, making the girl jump slightly and look a few paces in front of her where a reasonably tall young man stood. She eyed him up and down, crinkling her nose up slightly at his attire. He was wearing a deep blue shirt alongside a waistcoat with white trousers and a royal purple tie which made him come across as an overall neat and tidy person, aside from a strand of light blonde hair that stuck stubbornly out of place.

"Hello, I'm guessing you must be Hikari?" The man questioned, giving a quick glance in her direction.

Nodding, Hikari smiled. "Yeah that's me, and uh, you are?" She questioned, raising her eyebrow slightly.

"Oh. Gill, the mayor's son."

Hikari offered her hand out to shake a friendly greeting, but the boy stared rather disapprovingly, quickly looking away until she finally dropped her hand, feeling slightly awkward.

"Anyway, I just need you to come by the town hall and sign off some documents before the land is officially yours. So if you'd like to follow me please." He finished, starting to walk off, expecting her to follow.

The farmer watched him walk a few paces in front before stumbling to catch up. The short journey to the town hall was silent, neither one wanting to start talking to the other. For Gill, this was much of an inconvenience, having to spend time with this newcomer considering he was sure there would've been office work to be done or even just filing old paperwork. Pushing the small door open, Gill invited the brunette in and walked briskly towards the wide wooden desk where the paperwork was already laying, organised neatly so that Hikari would be able to just sign it and leave.

"Sign here please." He pointed on the document, not bothering to look at the girl. "Once you've signed it you're done and the land's yours. If I were you, I'd just spend time introducing yourself to villagers today, they've been somewhat excited about a newcomer." He said coldly, watching her sign the document, her signature a bunch of messy scribbles. "I'm sure if you asked, someone from Harmonica town would be more than happy to show you around." He paused for a second, waiting for her to place the pen back on the desk before speaking again. "Well, enjoy living here. I'll uh, see you later." With that, the blonde picked up the papers and turned his back to the girl.

_I wonder if everyone here is as standoffish and serious as he was. I don't think I'd be able to fit in properly here if they were…_

With a small sigh she stepped out of the hall, purposely slamming the door on her way out before making her way along the cobblestone path towards the nearest building. Looking up, Hikari could see that it was some sort of photo shop judging by the huge sign displayed above the shop door. Knocking gently, she stepped inside, listening to the jingling of little bells from the door as she did so. With a smile, she walked up towards the counter where a grey haired man stood happily.

"Ah, welcome to my shop. You must be Hikari right? It's always nice to see new people around town. I'm Simon, and if you ever need anything to do with cameras I'm that guy. I've worked in this studio for the past 15 years." He said proudly.

"Okay, im sorry, I better go and meet some others now." She said apologetically, hating to make a hasty exit with someone shed just met.

"Well I'll be here if you need me." The old man smiled, watching as Hikari turned and left his shop once more.

Across the road from Simon's store, Hikari found herself entering a prettily painted pink tailors shop. A small gasp left Hikari's mouth as she looked around at the colourful store. Clothes of all colours were spread about the shop, with what looked to be a huge selection of clothing on offer. This store would be useful later on. A girl with icy blue braids timidly walked up to the newcomer, seeing if she needed any help.

"Oh, hello there, we've not um, met before have we." She started, a little shocked to see another girl her age move here. People never moved here, especially not young adults anyway. "I'm Candace, and that over there." She said pointing to a slightly older woman sitting behind a sewing machine, "Is my grandma Shelly. I'd introduce you to Luna too but I'm not too sure where she is right now, sorry." She trailed off, pausing to think for a second. "Um, if you ever need clothes or anything, feel free to come in and ask, I'm sure we'd all be happy to help."

"Thanks, its lovely meeting you." Hikari smiled, giving a nod in the direction of Shelly too. "Well I best be off I think, I still need to meet everyone else on this island, see ya." With a small and a wave she exited the shop, barging straight into a small pink haired girl.

"Hey watch where you're going will you." She huffed out, picking herself up from when she'd stumbled to the floor.

"Ahh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I wasn't looking where I'm going and…" The girl trailed off apologetically, standing awkwardly, not sure whether to move out the way or what.

The pink's ears twitched at the sound of an unrecognisable voice. Looking up, she took an actual look at the girl in her weird combination outfit of orange, yellow and red. "Oh. You're new, huh? Well I'm Luna." She gave a small sweet smile, similar to that of an innocent child, before grabbing Hikari's hand and shaking it.

"So you've probably just gotten here right? I can show you around if you want? I'm sure Gill didn't bother with that much right?" She babbled, pausing for a second to think. A concentrated look spread across her face as she tried to remember something, with a sudden smile, the girl looked up at Hikari again and started speaking some more. "You must be Hikari then? The new farmer? Gill mentioned you a couple of times last week."

The brunette nodded. "Yep that me."

"Right okay, so let's get touring then."

Before Hikari could say anything else, Luna grabbed her hand and began dragging her to the next place.

"This is the bar, where almost everyone hangs out at night. If you're looking to make friends or whatever this is definitely the place to be." Luna stated, pushing open the big wooden doors.

Inside, a blonde stood with her back to them, cleaning one of the tables by the looks of it. Her honey coloured hair was tied up in a high ponytail and she was wearing a very short mini skirt, just long enough to cover her bum. Upon hearing the door open, she spun around, obviously about to say something before she stopped, seeing Luna in the doorway.

"Luna, hey!" She exclaimed, obviously happy to see her candyfloss haired friend. "It's been a while, you need to drop round more often."

Lana nodded, biting her lip slightly. "Yeah well, I've been kinda preoccupied by Gill, you know how he is and I guess I lost track of time a little."

Kathy giggle, "Well, it's about time you two finally got together. Everyone on this island knew you liked each other, it was so obvious." Rolling her eyes slightly, her gaze drifted to where Hikari stood, a couple of steps away from Luna.

"Oh sorry, I didn't see you there." She began before Luna butted in.

"This is why I came actually, I wanted to show the new girl, Hikari, around." She gave Hikari a sickly sweet smile, watching as Kathy practically jumped over to them.

"Oh well, its great meeting you Hikari." Kathy grinned, pulling her into a small hug. "If you need anything you know where I am now, I'm sure us 3 will be like great friends!"

"Yeah, it would be nice having a girly gang of sorts. Right, anyway, we better be going, I'm sure Hikari would want to see the island before it gets too dark."

"Yeah of course. Oh you guys so think about dropping by tonight, there's some sort of party thing that my dad's throwing here, I'm sure it would be great for you to get to know some people."

Without giving Hikari a chance to speak, Luna nodded and gave a quick thanks before practically dragged her out the bar and into the next place.

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The day seemed to go past way too quickly for Hikari. By now her feet ached slightly from walking around the entire island, almost. According to Luna she'd now met most people on the island and seen her farm, so that was exciting right? She was thrilled with the way her farm looked, I mean sure it was in serious need of some good weeding and the barn and coop needed repairing slightly, but it was her very own. Walking into the shabby little cottage she now called home, she plonked down on the little orange duvet coloured bed with a small sigh. Popping her feet up, she groaned a little, happy to be able to rest before tonight, flicking through her memory of today. Wanting to see if she could remember those she had met, Hikari began reflecting back and testing herself.

"Let's see… There was the fishery, with the silver haired guy, Ozzie? And his nephews Toby and Paolo. The little inn near that which was run by Jake and Colleen along with their slightly annoying, over perky daughter, Maya – she is definitely going to get on my nerves, and the pink haired head chef Yolanda. I can't exactly remember the people who run the two farms near me, just that the crop orientated farm couple were slightly grumpy and the others over eager. Uh, who else was there?" She sighed. "In the mining district there was the seaweed green haired woman running the store and others…" She paused looking to where her backpack was slung against the side of the bed. The villagers here were generous too, from what she could remember. She'd been given seeds and farming items, as well as promised a calf and other stuff, it was slightly overwhelming to say the least, but they were more than happy to make sure her life – for the month- would be comfortable.

"Better make my way back into town…" She whispered softly, remembering the invite offered from the bar maid Kathy. "It'll be good to get to know people a little better at least." She added thoughtfully, making her way towards the door.

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**A/N: Okay so I know I cut this short, but I'll make up for it in the next chapter. Also, I'm interested in what you guys think about who the bachelor she falls for should be? I'm torn between two, a popular one, and one I don't really see stories written for and obviously, the story will differ slightly on who I choose, so I wanted to know what bachelors you favour. Also, thanks to my first two followers for following my story, and thanks for the review! Obviously reviews mean everything when writing, so I really appreciate it. I know this chapter was a bit shabby, but it'll get better, I promise. **

**I know it took a while for me to update this too, that was because I was writing out the big scenes, I wanted to know exactly where this story is going, so I took the time to plan and write ahead a little bit. The next update should be really soon, so I'll see you then! **** Like always, thanks for reading! **


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